The Sackler family wants protection from opioid lawsuits. Will the Supreme Court grant it?

In the mid-late 1990s, Purdue Pharma began manufacturing, and heavily marketing, an opioid pill that has quickly become a thorn in the side of the world: OxyContin.

The implications of the pill, which is widely believed to have heavily contributed to, if not sparked, the opioid epidemic, is now making its way to the Supreme Court in a case that, at first, appears as another bankruptcy case.

In justices are being asked to decide if a reorganisation plan created by Purdue Pharmaceuticals under their Chapter 11 claim, can allow, to be granted immunity from civil liability even though the Sacklers have not declared bankruptcy themselves.